The confirmation of Unbris's existence was promptly announced by the Guild.
The characteristics of Unbris that Rei and his party had witnessed—the fact that it likely possessed no biological sense of self, and that it could submerge into the ground to travel underground—were also made public. Naturally, the adventurers who heard this found themselves clutching their heads.
Because it was a mist-like entity, they had already understood that it could fly through the sky.
But traveling underground was completely unexpected. That alone made them think they might have missed it even when passing close by.
...Of course, those who possessed the ability to detect an entity moving underground were not entirely nonexistent, but they were exceedingly few.
If only they could at least sense its magical power, there would still be a way to search for it... sighed the small number of people who could detect magical power.
Even so, having solid confirmation that Unbris actually existed was better than searching for it in a vacuum—where they did not know whether it was even around, and could only guess that it "perhaps" or "probably" was.
Furthermore, since some high-rank adventurers, including Rei, were capable of breaking through Unbris's high magical defense and dealing damage, many became more proactive about searching for it than they had been the day before.
However, searching for Unbris was not the only job adventurers had to do.
To begin with, the greatest reason Unbris was considered dangerous was its ability to spawn Leader Species of Demi-human Monsters.
As long as Unbris remained undefeated, it was certain that monster packs were still being created at this very moment.
Measures had to be taken against that as well, and beyond that, adventurers had multiple requests such as subjugation, escorting, and gathering.
Since there were other requests too, they could not pour all their effort into Unbris-related matters alone.
Amidst all this increasingly hectic activity... Rei, Vihera, and Set were flying through the sky, searching for any sign of Unbris.
Of course, if it did what Rei and his party had witnessed—seeping into the ground and moving underground—they would not be able to find it.
However, it was clear from the incident three hundred years ago that Unbris's movement was not exclusively underground.
Given that, there was a high possibility it was flying through the sky.
"Well, no idea if we'll actually find it, though."
Set purred in agreement with Rei, who murmured as he gazed out at the grassland spreading across the ground below.
Vihera, too, was scanning the surroundings while hanging from Set's front leg.
Set flew through the blue sky, nearly devoid of clouds, as befitting summer.
"Rather than not knowing whether we'll find it, it's more accurate to say there's no way to find it. ...Honestly, just pointlessly searching like this won't turn up anything, will it? Besides, even if we do find it..."
"If there aren't any adventurers nearby who can launch an attack against Unbris—myself included—it would just slip away right before our eyes."
"Yes. Though even setting that aside, the act of searching for Unbris is still necessary no matter what."
"I suppose so."
Searching for Unbris naturally meant searching around Gilm, which naturally meant they would find any monster packs moving about.
That was also contributing to the discovery of monster packs—a fact.
...Of course, if he were to say that, then Rei and his party also spotted packs frequently since they were flying through the sky.
In fact, today they had already found a pack of Goblins and Werewolves acting together and annihilated them from the air using Flame Magic.
Rei had thought he might want some Werewolf materials, but gathering them would be extremely tedious, so in the end he handed the materials over to a group of passing adventurers.
Those adventurers had cried out in joy at the unexpected fortune... but upon realizing that gathering the corpses was a hassle and that most of the usable material parts had been burned away, they were stunned.
Even so, while the materials were a loss, many of the Subjugation Proof Parts and Magic Stones were intact, so in the end it turned out to be a significant profit.
"In the end, finding Unbris is going to require some other factor... luck, I suppose."
"Luck? ...Unfortunately, my luck is far from good."
"Same here. I get caught up in all sorts of trouble wherever I go, and when I come back to Gilm, something like Unbris pops up."
Straddling Set's back, Rei felt exasperated by his trouble-prone constitution... no, by this point it could be called a trouble-attracting constitution.
(Hm? But if I hadn't been around when Unbris showed itself, Gilm would have taken serious damage, wouldn't it?)
He pondered this while searching for the mastermind behind this incident, but it was indeed a fact.
To begin with, if Unbris had appeared when Rei was not in Gilm, that would naturally mean Set was not in Gilm either, making it impossible to conduct a wide-area search using Set's power.
The number of packs Rei had crushed from the sky alongside Set was by no means small.
Of course, considering the abilities of the adventurers in Gilm, there were surely those who could win even in a head-on fight against the packs Rei had annihilated.
But even so, those who fought would undoubtedly be exhausted.
In Rei's case, precisely because he possessed an enormous amount of magical power, he could annihilate monster packs from above like carpet bombing without worrying about the magic he consumed.
Even if he used large-scale magic capable of wiping out a monster pack, the magical power consumed was but a fraction of what Rei held within him.
And the magical power he consumed would recover quickly as long as Rei rested or slept.
It was neither arrogance nor overconfidence. Solely with regard to this incident, Rei judged that Gilm still had breathing room precisely because of his own power.
He did not think that Gilm would be instantly destroyed without him, but even so, there likely would not have been the leeway for merchants to come all the way from Abuelo.
Not all merchants had come to Gilm, and there were also merchants who had arrived in Gilm before this turmoil began and still could not leave.
However, for ambitious merchants, this was also a chance to profit.
While other merchants feared the danger and avoided Gilm, they alone were coming to Gilm, so naturally the profits were large.
Of course, if they were found by a monster pack, the likelihood of total annihilation was high—a gamble with their own lives.
But precisely because of that, the payoff when they won was large, and for merchants who had ambition but not much money, present-day Gilm was a place to earn.
"Rei, over there."
As Rei was thinking about the merchants, Vihera's voice reached his ears.
Vihera had said "over there" aloud, but since she was hanging from Set's front leg, Rei could not tell exactly where she meant.
Nevertheless, when he directed his gaze toward the ground, a carriage lay overturned there, with various goods spilled from its cargo bed scattered about.
A man who appeared to be the carriage driver and escort adventurers were fighting desperately against Goblins.
Seeing that alone, it was obvious what had happened without needing to think about it.
(Speak of the devil, as they say. ...Well, it wasn't exactly a rumor, though.)
Thinking that, Rei leapt from Set's back, which he had been straddling.
Normally, the fastest and most reliable method to annihilate a Goblin pack would be to use magic from the air.
But this time, merchants, a carriage, and their escorts were under attack by Goblins.
Using magic from the sky toward the ground in this situation would inevitably catch them in the crossfire.
Given that, what Rei needed to do, though troublesome, was to land on the ground and defeat the Goblins while protecting the merchants.
Using his Sleipnir boots as always to soften his fall, he drew weapons from his Misty Ring.
With Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear in his left, Rei landed a short distance away from the merchants.
"Uwah!"
If he had landed right beside them, the merchants and escorts might have instinctively attacked him.
With just one merchant and two escorts, in a situation where they clearly could not win against the Goblins, it was only natural for them to react that way when something suddenly appeared beside them.
Rei understood that as well, which was why he had landed a short distance away.
"Providing support."
He murmured, swinging the Death Scythe in his right hand and thrusting the Twilight Spear in his left toward the Goblins in front of him.
At this point, the merchants' safety was essentially secured, but with the powerful reinforcements of Set and Vihera arriving from the sky above... it took less than a few minutes to annihilate the Goblin pack.
"Thank you so much! You truly saved us!"
The merchant, a man who was barely twenty, bowed deeply to Rei and Vihera.
Beside the merchant, the two escorts were similarly bowing their heads.
"Merchants willing to come to Gilm in this situation are valuable. ...Still, having only two escorts means you underestimated the frontier far too much."
As Rei spoke, shaking the blood from Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, the merchant gave a troubled smile.
"I knew I should have hired more escorts, but I only have one carriage. That naturally limits the number of escorts I can fit. I have to transport goods, of course."
Hearing that, Rei could not press the matter further.
If this were normal times, they could have had the escorts walk outside the carriage and matched its pace accordingly.
But doing such a thing in the current situation would be nothing short of suicidal.
They needed to minimize their time outside and rush to reach Gilm even a little faster.
Naturally, that meant sometimes arriving at Gilm's gates during hours when they would normally be closed, but Daskar, too, as lord, held concerns about Gilm's current state.
In particular, as many merchants as possible needed to be protected. Normally, those who arrived in Gilm after hours were made to spend the night outside by the gates, but for the past while, he had been authorizing the gates to be opened immediately for any merchants arriving, even in the middle of the night.
In an ordinary town or village, fear of Bandits would make such a decision impossible... but those who would attempt Banditry in this frontier were, if not nonexistent, exceedingly few.
Powerful monsters roamed the vicinity of Gilm, and on top of that, packs were swarming due to the Unbris situation.
Anyone who could ply the Bandit trade under such conditions would have the skill to earn more easily as an adventurer.
Above all, even if there were Bandits who plotted to attack Gilm, Gilm was home to many skilled adventurers, and the guards and Knights, precisely because they were in the frontier, possessed high levels of combat ability.
Furthermore, an underworld society existed in Gilm as well, and they knew that causing a disturbance in Gilm under the current circumstances was suicidal.
Those very people also did not want to see Gilm fall, so they were spontaneously cooperating.
"I understand your situation. ...So, what will you do now? It looks like the carriage is already broken."
The carriage that Rei's gaze fell upon was lying on its side.
If that were all, Rei and Set could work together to set it right, but whether from the impact of it falling over or from the aftermath of the battle, the carriage's axle was broken.
Fortunately, the carriage had merely tipped over, and the horses that had been pulling it were unharmed... but with the carriage overturned, they would likely have to abandon most of the cargo.
"Yes, it's unfortunate. ...Still, I suppose we were lucky just to have our lives."
Rei was slightly surprised by the optimistic words that came from the merchant's mouth.
Having sustained this much damage, as a merchant it was a massive loss... rather, it was such a deficit that depending on how bad it was, he might have no choice but to go out of business.
Despite that, a smile floated on the man's lips.
As if showing a pitiful figure before his benefactors was contrary to his pride.
"...Interesting."
"Excuse me?"
At Rei's words, which slipped out involuntarily, the merchant man tilted his head in puzzlement.
"No, never mind. ...Actually, right. Since it's on the way, I'll escort you to Gilm."
The merchant could not hide his surprise at the words that suddenly came from Rei's mouth.
This merchant, having headed for Gilm with ambition, knew of Rei and Set.
He had not seemed to know of Vihera... but since Rei had hardly stood on the public stage since he began traveling with Vihera, that was not strange.
Why would such a skilled adventurer take on an unprofitable job? The merchant wondered... but for the time being, Rei had the two escorts help him extract the Goblins' Magic Stones to serve as the merchant's funds.
Set, watching this, kept watch on the surroundings, and Vihera, thinking that Rei's whim had struck again, helped with the work of extracting the Magic Stones from the Goblins.